Random Ride Sunday

I was to lead a ride of the Three Capes Scenic Loop for my social bike group today. It would have been ~80 miles with some hills and temperatures predicted to be in the low 70's. That would have been a welcome respite from the triple digits of the Willamette Valley. Alas, nobody signed up. I drove 3 hours round trip for a ride yesterday and figured I just didn't need to drive all the way to the coast to ride. I canceled the club ride and decided to go for my own ride instead.

I didn't have a plan for any particular route or destination this morning, I just pedaled off. I ended up crossing the Boone Bridge on I-5 then getting on Boones Ferry Rd and heading south. When I got to Whiskey Hill Rd I turned.... just because.
I followed it until it crossed a road and turned into Barnards Rd. I pedaled that into Molalla. There I took the turn towards Dickey Prairie, (because a friend used to teach there) then to Glen Avon (because I used to raft there!) then rode along the Molalla River until the road turned to gravel near the boundary of the Table Rock Wilderness.

The road was surprisingly good. Smooth pavement, gentle grades, and even on this hot day not a whole lot of traffic.



Speaking of traffic, the area around Dickey Prairie must have something in the water. I've never had such a slew of rude and dangerous drivers. I lost count but there had to have been 8-10 drivers who honked, flipped me off, swerved over the fog line as they passed, yelled expletives out the window, etc. We've all had this kind of incident, I've just never had so many in one day.

Other than those issues it was a good ride. Though it was a warm day there was plenty of shade as I rode along the river and the climbing was gentle.

On the way back down I stopped at the Dickey Prairie Store to have a couple of fudgesicles and a cold drink. The proprietor told me that it was 95. It really didn't feel that warm.

I was even more surprised to see 101 degrees on the time/temp at the Whiskey Hill School as I passed through that area around 4PM. Though at that point there wasn't a lot of shade and it did feel warm. I kept well hydrated and there were no issues.

In keeping with the random nature of today's ride, I took a bit of a detour through Gervais on the way home..... just because it was such a nice day to be riding.

All tolled, I finished up with 136 miles. I was surprised to see a 14.7 mph average because I didn't feel like I was riding hard at all, just putting in saddle time today. In fact my average heart rate was 99 bpm, about 30-40 bpm less than when I'm pedaling hard.

Maybe come October I should just plan on putting in saddle time.........about 47.9 hours worth of it!


............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.......136...............0...............0..........136
Jan........618...............0................0..........618
Feb........692...............0................0..........692
March......940...............0................5..........940
April......934...............0................0..........934
May........905...............0................0..........905
June......1152...............0................0.........1152
July......1020...............0................0.........1020
Aug........427...............0................0..........427
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....6706...............0..............5.........6711